Sina Solvane entered the courtroom. The walls of the courtroom were slanted inward, symbolizing His Majesty overlooking the audience. The walls met the ceiling at an incredible height—representing the scale of the authority of the Church.

It was said that the criminal seated at the defendant’s stand would be able to see a ray of light through a window located at the highest point of the courtroom if they craned their neck backward until it hurt. That represented His Majesty’s mercy.

‘But no criminal would be able to see that.’ 

The accused were never allowed to lift up their heads in a trial. Even Sina walked into the courtroom with her eyes on the ground.

This trial was different from the usual ones, as the inquisitorial trial was meant to pass judgment on people related to charges of heresy. The results of the trial were usually harsh and strict, making it the subject of fear.

Sina had tried searching for the window whilst observing a few of these trials, but she had never been able to locate it, as it could only be seen from the defendant’s stand.

“Sina Solvane.”

“Elite Knight of the Order of the Blue Rose.”

“Your mother served as an Imperial Knight and was honorably discharged due to injuries.”

“You graduated with excellent results as a Templar in the Holy City of Torra.”

“But there are records of you quarreling with Priests frequently.” Rietto briefly summarized Sina’s past as soon as she sat down.

There was reproach in Rietto’s words at the reason for Sina’s transfer to the borders, despite her excellent performance and family background. Arguments with Priests were no small matter; the heaviest sentence for blasphemy was execution in some regions.

“As you know, Tantil’s colosseum isn’t an ordinary location.”

“Neither was the incident that occurred here a few days ago.”

“Especially since such a disrespectful incident happened on the emperor’s birthday!” Rietto exclaimed.

The 134 deaths and 289 injured didn’t seem to matter to him at all; not even the growing fear and tension in the city mattered to him.

“Based on your report, you’re the only survivor, despite being in contact with the culprit!”

“You forged your captain’s warrant and conducted an illegal search!”

“There was also information that you were intimate with the culprit that caused such great damage!” Rietto continued.

It seemed that some of the soldiers who had witnessed Sina meeting Juan that night had survived the fire. Sina knew how things looked like for her and carefully spoke. “Your Excellency—”

“Be quiet!” Rietto shouted, before Sina could even continue her sentence.

“I can smell the stench of heresy from you!”

“How impertinent! How dare you try to defend yourself in my trial? Do you doubt my judgment?”

“That’s blasphemy that I won’t endure as the proxy of His Majesty!” Rietto exclaimed.

This preposterous situation made Sina felt like she had returned back to the days when she was still in Torra, quarreling with fanatic Priests as she protested against their sophistry. However, things were different now; the situation could get worse if she spoke any further.

“I already know of all the corrupted things you’ve done!”

“As well as how you’ve been stripped of your templar position because of your lack of faith!”

“And also how you disobeyed the authority of your superior!” Rietto stated.

Sina wanted to say that this was all irrelevant to the matter at hand, but she could only listen quietly. Such a one-sided trial could not be considered fair. She could only hope that there was a slight chance that some rumors of Bishop Rietto were true.

“You need to undergo the holy purification! The most fiery purification there is!”

“It’s been too long since you’ve felt the incandescence of the purification.”

“You must be burned. I want to burn you to the point your face and your limbs shrivel!” Rietto's bones cracked as he shouted agitatedly—it felt as if his neck was about to break from the sheer passion.

After he finished his lines, he suddenly lifted up his head and shouted, “Instead of catching the culprit, you instead wasted time on those lowly peasants! Don’t you know that His Majesty should be your highest priority as a knight? In that light, you are an utter disgrace!”

‘I’m done,’ Sina thought. She had kept her silence for long enough.

“Is it the job of a shepherd to drive his sheep off the cliff and chase the wolves?” Sina asked.

“Don’t sully my court with your heresy! YOU are the pestilence that’s making the land sick and killing all the livestock!” Rietto shouted.

“His Majesty did not rise to the peak to kill the wolves, but to guide the sheep. We, the knight orders, are sheepdogs that help—”

FWIP!

A sharp sound ripped through the air, and Sina’s speech was interrupted by searing pain coming from her back. The Templar that accompanied the Bishop was holding onto a whip, ready to use it again. A bloody gash had appeared on Sina's back.

‘I got into trouble again.’ 

Sina blamed herself for not being able to stay quiet as she remembered how she had quarreled in the same way with the Priests when she had been studying to become a knight.

Rietto stared murderously at Sina as he said, “That is enough. I have heard enough of your heresy.”

“I’ve heard the holy message from His Majesty.”

“Lock this fool in solitary confinement while she awaits judgment.”

***

“You should have just held it in,” Ossrey said while giggling.

“It feels like I’ve said that to myself hundreds of times, but I might have died of anger if I held it in any longer,” Sina replied.

Ossrey applied ointment on Sina’s back, which had turned into a mess from the whipping. It was as if the whip had barbs on it. It took a while for the bleeding to stop.

“Although this is an expensive ointment, I don’t think you will be able to avoid scarring,” Ossrey remarked.

“It would be considered a miracle if I got off with just one whip despite having talked back to the Bishop,” Sina replied.

“The younger ones in the knight order might even like what you did,” Ossrey told Sina.

“That’s if I can still continue to stay in the knight order,” Sina responded.

“I can’t imagine you doing things like weaving clothes… I think you’ll probably harvest fruits using your sword in the fields,” Ossrey said jokingly.

“My father did teach me how to work in an orchard when I was young. Thinking back, he might have been preparing me for it in advance based on my personality. Well, the scenery in an orchard is decent, so it might not be such a bad idea,” Sina chuckled.

But Ossrey wasn’t able to do the same. There was no way that the punishment would end with just getting expelled from the knight order. That wasn’t the kind of punishment that the inquisitorial trial would dish out. One was either guilty or completely innocent. It meant that they would either be punished mercilessly, or receive no punishment at all—it was one or the other.

Rietto had a lot of reasons to be suspicious of Sina and had not given her any chance to defend herself. There was good reason for Rietto to think of Sina as an accomplice even if he did not think of her as the main culprit.

For an incident of such a large scale, someone definitely had to take the blame for it and the Elite Knight of a knight order was a good target. Even if Sina survived this, she would be left half crippled.

“Ossrey,” Sina called out.

“Yes, Dame Sina.” There was a little hesitation in Ossrey’s reply.

“If I can no longer fulfill my duties as a knight, please find Juan for me. You’re the only one other than me who’s seen what he’s truly capable of. You must catch him,” Sina said.

“What... do you want me to do with him?” Ossrey asked.

“He’s not the one who brought about the disaster as per the rumors. While he’s not an ordinary boy, there is something mysterious about him. We can’t get rid of him. I have a feeling that whether he becomes a disaster or our savior depends on our actions,” Sina explained.

“Putting aside your overestimation of his abilities, is this something that I can do alone?” Ossrey asked.

“You’re right. I can’t trust you completely in this; it would be best if I could do this together with you,” Sina said as her dry laughter echoed in the prison cell.

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps came from the prison corridor. Sina put her clothes back on despite the pain it caused. The door opened and in came the Templar who had whipped Sina back at the trial. While Ossrey glared at him, the Templar did not care about Ossrey at all. The masked Templar looked down at Sina and said, “Sina Solvane, it’s time for your sentence.”

Sina was taken aback. Although sentences for inquisitorial trials were usually quicker than regular trials, it had been less than an hour since the trial ended. She felt a sense of foreboding, but the sentence… was something that no one had expected.

***

Juan quietly climbed atop the tree and looked below. There was a stag looking around cautiously. It had strangely bloodshot eyes, with strangely shaped antlers that had leaves and vines tangled around them.

It was a perfect target. Juan jumped from the tree and struck the back of the stag’s head, in the gap between its spine and skull with the short sword. The stag collapsed on the spot without a single scream.

“Phew...” Juan let out a breath. He felt that this was good enough as practice for improving his ability to move stealthily. Trying to hide his presence from a beast in the forest was something entirely different from doing it in a colosseum full of blood, stench and chaos. While he was a little rusty when it came to hiding his presence, because he had not done it for a long time, he got used to it quickly. As the emperor, he had to be skilled in hiding his body before he got his original abilities back. He thought of getting stronger as he slowly trained in the basics, like he had just done.

‘Time to eat.’

Juan’s body was made of mana, and while he did not need to eat if he had enough mana, it would be better for him to eat something, so that he would not feel hungry and he could reduce his mana consumption. He was not just trying to fill his stomach.

Blood spurted out as Juan used Talter’s short sword to cut the stag’s artery. He then put his mouth on the cut and drank the stag’s blood. The sight of a child drinking the blood of a deer in a dense forest was a horrifying one.

Juan felt mana flow into him after he drank a certain amount of blood.

‘As expected, it does replenish my mana.’

Juan replenished his mana just like how he had accidentally done with the demonic beast’s corpse back in the colosseum.

While they had less mana compared to the demonic beasts, the beasts in this vicinity nonetheless had a decent amount of mana, enough to replenish what he consumed as he trained.

Juan looked up after he drank his fill. He saw an ash-colored tower faintly beyond the dense forest.

‘These beasts probably have so much mana in them because of the energy that’s coming from there.’ 

Beasts were drawn to places that had dense mana, and they sometimes turned into demonic beasts in those places. The ash-colored tower was one of the places where mana had gathered in abnormal amounts. There was a high probability that more ferocious beasts would appear as he neared the tower.

However, he did not plan to head there right away. His first destination was the capital.